House Democrats introduced a new bill this week that would raise the minimum age for purchasing certain types of firearms from 18 to 21 and naturally, a lot of Republicans are furious.
The House Judiciary Committee met for a markup Thursday, which is when the members of a committee meet to debate and vote on whether to advance a bill to the floor. Some members participated remotely, which means we got to witness Texas Republican Louie Gohmert’s meltdown in Zoom close-up.
“You think we don’t have hearts?”
— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) to Democrats during gun reform hearing pic.twitter.com/HenxLgzlW6
— The Recount (@therecount) June 2, 2022
“You think we don’t have hearts??” a furious Gohmert seethed before saying the reason Republicans don’t support common-sense gun law reforms like this one is because they’ve “seen the carnage” in blue areas.
First of all, if Republicans on this very committee want us to believe they have hearts, maybe they shouldn’t be tweeting shit like this in response to a civil court verdict declaring a woman isn’t allowed to talk about the domestic violence she’s been proven to have experienced:
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) June 1, 2022
That’s not what we’re talking about here (although the link between violence against women and mass shootings is undeniable so it’s not completely unrelated) but still, that tweet is deranged and the epitome of heartless. I cannot believe those people have this much power over our lives and safety.
But in response to Gohmert’s question, speaking specifically about Republicans’ response to gun control and whether we think it looks like they don’t have hearts … Yes! That’s exactly what we think!
Yeah not only do we think they don’t have hearts. We think the hearts are locked up in a vault with “property of the NRA” tattooed on it.
— Atima Omara (@atima_omara) June 2, 2022
Gohmert’s claim that Democrat-led cities see higher rates of gun violence than those led by Republicans is an oft-repeated talking point for gun advocates but factually speaking, it’s flimsy at best. Obviously, violence is going to occur at higher rates in more densely populated areas, and most major cities have Democrats as mayors. But many of those Democrat-led cities are in Republican-led states. And if we look at gun violence by state rather than city, red states dominate that list.
But even if Gohmert’s claims were true, which they simply aren’t, what would he call the tragedy in Uvalde Texas, or the three simultaneous public shootings that happened just last night, or the over 200 mass shootings that have taken place so far this year alone, if not “carnage”? How can they see what happened there and choose to just not just do nothing, but scream at those trying to make change?
Yes, after decades of doing literally nothing to prevent these tragedies, we think Republicans who oppose gun law reform don’t have hearts. How would they even have room for hearts inside their bodies, which as far as I can tell are generally made up of about 40% NRA funding, 40% bigotry, and 20% indifference?
(image: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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